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The World ship has 12 decks, is almost 200 meters long and 30 meters wide, but it is not exactly a cruise ship and it is not even just any yacht: with 165 luxury apartments costing from 2 million dollars upwards it is the ship largest private residential building in the world, where between 150 and 200 people live more or less permanently. The World, whose name means “the world”, was described and CNN Travel as “a playground for multimillionaires and billionaires that circumnavigates the oceans”: its inhabitants prefer to maintain a certain confidentiality, but one of them told what it was like to live there.
«I’m not saying that everything that happens in The White Lotus happen on The World“, he actually said to CNN Travel retired lawyer Peter Antonucci, citing the successful TV series set in luxury hotels populated by very rich people: “I believe, however, that this comparison is largely not inaccurate.”
On the official website dedicated to the ship, is promised «the ultimate combination of luxury travel and world-class dining, a catalog of award-winning wines, experiences and excursions to the most remote parts of the globe, health and wellness services and enriching cultural events». On board there is a tennis court, a large spa and a well-stocked wine cellar, as well as of course bars, restaurants, hairdressers and much more. As he said in the luxury magazine Elite Traveler journalist Kim Ayling, who took us on a short trip around the coast of Wales in the summer of 2023, the inhabitants meet up to play poker and golf, but also to have more ordinary experiences, for example taking part in a book club or see a movie.
Also the Times he used the expression «playground» to talk about the World, which often makes scheduled stops to allow its inhabitants to participate in world-famous events, such as the Rio de Janeiro carnival in Brazil or the prestigious Wimbledon tennis tournament in London. “No globally known celebrities live there,” he told al Times The World‘s communications director, Anne-Beth Nemeroff, “but many people are known in the countries they come from.” However, the social life on board seems to be one of the ship’s main attractions.
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Antonucci described the atmosphere on the ship as «halfway between that of a country club and one sorority», referring to the social clubs that very rich people usually frequent and to the fraternities of college girls in the United States. «We drink a lot, we party constantly. And that’s the fun part.” He also said that things happen «partly funny and relatively harmless, like people getting drunk and ending up singing or simply having a nice evening», but also a more libertine dimension that he personally didn’t like.
Antonucci had discovered the existence of The World around 2012 thanks to an article in Wall Street Journal and, after a “test” trip between Belize and the Panama Canal, in 2014 he bought a two-room apartment on board with his wife. At first it had all seemed “absurdly expensive”, but then he changed his mind and bought three more apartments (the first for about 1.6 million dollars and the others for 4 each, he recalls).
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Since 2002 The World has stopped in more than a thousand ports in 120 countries, as can be read on the dedicated website. The families who own the apartments are around 150, from 20 different countries; some live there permanently but most do so for three or four months at a time, using it as a second home. Families also live there with children who don’t go to school but who do homeschoolingthat is, they are taught directly by their parents or by someone on their behalf.
The cost of apartments on board ranges from 2 million dollars for a studio apartment of around 30 square meters to around 15 million for a 300 square meter apartment with three bedrooms, writes the Times. On board you can buy an apartment only if invited by a person who already has one, and with the consent of at least one other inhabitant. According to rumors cited by CNN Travel to be eligible you would need to have assets of at least 10 million dollars. The ship’s itinerary is decided with a vote by the inhabitants, three years in advance: each trip must be organized down to the smallest detail, whether it is to visit the forests of Grenada in the Caribbean Sea, go on a safari in Australia or see the penguins in Antarctica.
In everyday life you pay nothing but the on-board staff discreetly notes all the expenses, which at the end of the year are added to those to cover maintenance costs and crew salaries, more or less high depending on the square footage of the apartments, a bit like what happens with condominium expenses. Living on board, however, is not always comfortable and this is also why many people don’t stay on board for more than six or seven years: a period, notes Nemeroff, still sufficient to circumnavigate “the world twice”.
Usually those who sell their apartment do so for health reasons or to be closer to children and grandchildren, Nemeroff always says. Antonucci sold his book in 2019 because «once you’ve circumnavigated the whole globe a few times, you’ve seen it, and I had seen what I wanted to see». In the end «the political choices and the gossip on board [lo] they were a bit bored”: he has since written three books inspired by his experience on the ship, which he claims do not include real facts or people.